DEFINITION
The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act — proposed U.S. legislation that would define which digital assets are commodities (overseen by the CFTC) versus securities (SEC), settling by statute the jurisdictional question that has shaped a decade of crypto enforcement.
The bill passed the House with bipartisan support in July 2025 — the same summer the GENIUS Act made stablecoin rules law — but stalled in the Senate, where negotiations over DeFi protocols, stablecoin yield, and anti-money-laundering provisions pushed a promised vote past mid-2026. Bitcoin's own status isn't in dispute: both agencies treat it as a commodity, the position confirmed in the SEC–CFTC joint interpretation of March 2026.
The stakes are durability. Agency rules — like the SEC's 2026 crypto rulemaking agenda — can be rewritten by the next administration; a statute persists. Whether the Senate acts before November's midterms decides if the U.S. crypto framework is written in law or in reversible regulation.